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Influences of the romantic period
Romanticism and nature
The influence of romanticism
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‘Composed from Westminster Bridge’ invokes a strong sense of nature into the reader. It is from this that we can see the beauty of Wordsworth’s London. One can argue that it is the purpose of this sonnet to highlight the power of nature and how civilization fits in around it. Primarily this can be seen in the linguistic choices of the Sonnet, particularly the role of personification, the function of phonological features such as rhyme and rhythm and the position of secondary sources. Using this methodology we should be able to explore the awe inspired respect of nature and how the city of London meshes with nature. Wordsworth makes heavy use of personification within the Sonnet. These personifications animate the city beyond the literal description we encounter into a more natural affair. ‘This city now doth like a garment wear/ The Beauty of the morning; silent, bare.’ To suggest that the city is wearing a garment implied that it is being covered up or censored. We could take this as a sign that nature hides the sins of civilization in the morning time when the people are still asleep. Further more as nature is being worn by civilization we could infer that Wordsworth only takes on this appreciation of the city due to the effects of nature. To prove this we can look at Wordsworth’s description of London in relation its surroundings. The description of London’s ‘Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples’ in the syndetic list is almost paralleled in the latter line of ‘In his first Splendour valley, rock or hill;’ which is the view of Suckersmith who states that ‘the listed details of the city skyline, 'Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples' find a careful parallel in the features of the natural landscape, 'valley, roc... ... middle of paper ... ...alden:Blackwell Publishing 2006) p.534-535 All subsequent references are to this edition Harvey Peter Sucksmith, ‘Ultimate Affirmation: A Critical Analysis of Wordsworth's Sonnet, 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge', and the Image of the City in 'The Prelude’, The year book of English studies 6 (1976) p. 115 Charles V. Hartung, ‘Wordsworth on Westminster Bridge: Paradox or Harmony?’, College English 4 (1952) p.202 Harvey Peter Sucksmith, ‘Ultimate Affirmation: A Critical Analysis of Wordsworth's Sonnet, 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge', and the Image of the City in 'The Prelude’, The year book of English studies 6 (1976) p. 115 C. V. Wicker, ‘On Wordsworth’s Westminster Bridge Sonnet’, The News Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association 9 (1955) pg.4 Carl Woodring, ‘Nature and Art in the Nineteenth Century’, PMLA 92 (1977)pg. 193
(ll. 19-24) Wordsworth’s famous and simple poem, “I wandered lonely as a cloud,” expresses the Romantic Age’s appreciation for the beauty and truth that can be found in a setting as ordinary as a field of daffodils. With this final stanza, Wordsworth writes of the mind’s ability to carry those memories of nature’s beauty into any setting, whether city or country. His belief in the power of the imagination and the effect it can have on nature, and vice a versa, is evident in most of his work. This small
In the poem, Wordsworth describes, “Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie...All bright in glittering in the smokeless air (Wordsworth 6).” The town advanced greatly and in the moment, there isn’t smoke to cloud the beauty of achievement, there isn’t smoke filling the air because the factories hadn’t begun working when he wrote the poem. Even though the morning time is ideal, Wordsworth avoids the harsh reality of the harm the factories are causing. Charles Dickens describes the town as, “unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage (Document A)”. The town had fallen far enough to make people think the worst of the condition (Document A). Alexis de Tocqueville mentions that, “man has turned back almost into a savage.” Civilians have done the same as the towns, and are letting go of the standards they once set (Document B). The connotation of the word savage is significant of the fact that entire cities and its people are reverting back to times of ignorance and loss of connection to their world. In the poem, Wordsworth describes that, “Earth has not anything to show more fair (Wordsworth 1),” in the thought of people only have one planet and that people have done enough damage and taking away the beauty of the
William Blake’s poem “London” takes a complex look at life in London, England during the late seventeen hundreds into the early eighteen hundreds as he lived and experienced it. Blake’s use of ambiguous and double meaning words makes this poem both complex and interesting. Through the following explication I will unravel these complexities to show how this is an interesting poem.
The title of the poem, coupled with the first stanza, establishes the setting in London (England) and describes the social environment that frames the characters (the city’s residents) and their surroundings. The title designates the exact location of the setting and immediately informs the reader that it takes place in London. Although the lyric is written in first-person singular, the speaker is not the poet. Blake sensibly creates a persona that expresses subjective thoughts and expressions to refer to the speaker’s personal experiences in order to emphasize penetrating resonance of the poem’s diction. “London” reflects the period in which it was written by depicting the very image of most of urban life during the period of Romanticism in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Many of the libertarian movements during this period were induced by the romantic philosophy, or the desire to be free of convention and tyranny, and ...
Normally in comparing the age of sensibility with nature, we see this great appreciation of nature as a whole. In Smith’s poems, we do see this, but mostly in this sonnet we see a jealousy of nature. Smith is able to connect with the beauty of Spring on some level; it is something that brings her a small amount of...
The poems ‘lines composed on Westminster Bridge’ and ‘London’ are created by William Wordsworth and William Blake respectively. Wordsworth’s work originated in the eighteenth century and he himself lived in the countryside, and rarely visited large cities such as London. This is reflected on his poem, making it personal to his experience in London, however William Blake on the other hand had a vast knowledge of London and was actually a London poet, which allowed him to express his views of London from a Londoner’s point of view. I therefore will be examining comparisons in both poems, as well as their contrasting views of London and the poetic devices used to express their opinions.
... with Us. Lastly, Wordsworth’s poem London, 1802 also shows his fear of premature mortality of the imagination. All of these works contain his fear of losing imagination and how man should return to nature.
He depicts London as dirty, disorderly, government ruled, sad and confronting, filled with powerless and entrapped people in turmoil. There is reference to, sadness is every face on the street, children being forced down chimneys by the church, blood running down Palace walls, prostitution, dysfunction of motherhood and the fairly rapidly failing state of the society before the revolution. This was the decaying, pre-revolutionary identity of the British people. ‘London’ the poem so effectively transports contemporary readers into the moment through the use of endless poetic devices.
In “London” by William Blake, we can see how the mood of the poem is very dark and critical to the city of London. In “London” by William Wordsworth, the poem is portrayed the same way, showing how the city of London is on its lowest points in history. Both poems have a lot of similarities’; they are both about how in this point in history, London is on its lowest, the both authors are explaining how they don’t see London going nowhere and just staying the way it is. Both poets attack London in the topics of religion, army, people/home, and literature.
The London Bridge is Falling Down: The Use of Repetition, Symbols, and Connotation in William Blake’s Poem “London”
In the first poem, 'Westminster' this person is visiting London for the first time, he is not shown the reality of London but a slightly obscured view of beauty, as the light is reflecting off buildings, and giving an impression of calm, peace and tranquility. 'The beauty of the morning, silent, bare.' The reason we can guess for his delusion of the city is the fact that he is seeing it in 'the m...
Upon first reading one of London’s most distinguishable feature is the rhythm that is evoked by the closed structure of the poem. London’s text is divided into four stanzas each containing four lines. The four lines in the each stanza follow a pattern of repeated syllable count which features the corresponding lines from each stanza having identical syllable counts. Another structural device that Blake employs is an ABAB rhyming scheme at the end of every line, which is what brings out the poem’s steady beat. Together these structural choices develop a chant-like rhythm that brings out emotion from both side of the poem’s message. On one hand this chant like rhythm creates a feeling of conformity and industry, which is a reflection of the industrial revolution and the power of the government. However, the chant also can be seen as a representation of ...
The Influence of Nature in Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth
Durrant, Geoffrey. Wordsworth and the Great System, A Study of Wordsworth’s Poetic Universe. Cambridge: University Printing House, 1970.
"The Poetry of William Wordsworth." SIRS Renaissance 20 May 2004: n.p. SIRS Renaissance. Web. 06 February 2010.